Darktable review 201811/24/2023 No verdict can set things right or restore what was lost that morning,” he said.Ĭlarke declined to comment to CNN while departing court.īowers’ formal sentencing is set to take place Thursday, and some of the victims’ families are expected to speak. “It cannot bring back any of the 11 victims. In comments outside court, Olshan praised the jury’s decision but noted it would not change what happened that day. He said he has thanked hundreds of jurors with a similar speech over the years, but “I’ve never delivered it with as much sincerity as I did just now.” Judge Robert Colville appeared emotional while thanking the jury after the decision. He had no noticeable reaction to the sentence. In court, Bowers was bent over, looking intently at a piece of paper as the judge read the jury’s lengthy verdict form. The defense put forth 115 mitigating factors, and while the jury agreed with some of the more factual elements, they rejected the defense’s key arguments.įor example, none of the jurors found that he “suffers from delusions,” that he “is a person with schizophrenia” or that he “committed the offense under mental or emotional disturbance.” Further, none of the jurors agreed that he was a “model pretrial inmate” or that he “behaved respectfully in court.” The jury unanimously found that all five of the prosecution’s aggravating factors were proven. Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting trial features prayer book with a bullet hole and survivors' testimony Rabbi Jeffrey Myers testified that a damaged prayer book "tells a story that needs to be told." United States District Court Jury rejects defense’s mental health arguments “All Americans deserve to live free from the fear of hate-fueled violence and the Justice Department will hold accountable those who perpetrate such acts.” “Hate crimes like this one inflict irreparable pain on individual victims and their loved ones and lead entire communities to question their very belonging,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. The jury further found he was eligible for the death penalty on July 13, moving the trial to a third and final sentencing stage. Twenty-two of those counts were capital offenses. Eight people who were inside the building escaped unharmed.īowers, 50, was convicted on June 16 of all 63 counts against him, including hate crime charges. Of the six wounded survivors, four were police officers who responded to the scene. Those killed include a 97-year-old great-grandmother, an 87-year-old accountant and a couple married at the synagogue more than 60 years earlier. At the time, the synagogue was hosting three congregations – Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light – for weekly Shabbat services. The death sentence represents the end of a saga that began on October 27, 2018, when Bowers burst into the Tree of Life synagogue and shot people with an AR-15-style rifle. Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial reaches closing arguments on potential death penalty Matthew Hatcher/SOPA Images/LightRocket/FILE They asked two questions of the court: one to examine the guns used in the shooting, and another to ask for a copy of documents in evidence about the gunman’s family history. Jurors spent just over 10 hours deliberating over the past two days. “There is no happy in those two negatives, but the chapter is closed.” There was a crime committed and there was a criminal sentenced,” Glickman told CNN. Glickman said Bowers’ sentencing wasn’t a joyful moment, but a finality to a chapter of five years since the massacre. “It was viciously murdering each individual up close and personal.” “It wasn’t just spraying bullets into people in a synagogue,” Glickman, who is also a member of the congregation, said after the sentencing. Otherwise, Bowers would have been sentenced to life in prison without parole.Īudrey Glickman, who was leading a service in the Tree of Life Chapel at the time of the shooting, told CNN’s Danny Freeman what the gunman did was “evil.” The decision to sentence the gunman to death had to be unanimous. It’s the first federal death penalty imposed under the Biden administration, which has put a moratorium on executions. Robert Bowers, the gunman who killed 11 worshippers and wounded six others at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 in the deadliest-ever attack on Jewish people in the United States, was unanimously sentenced to death by a federal jury on Wednesday.
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